Thomas is a frequent flyer at our foldable couch. He is an architecture student from the Netherlands that we met a couple of years ago and became good friends with. Everytime he visits his family up in central Sweden, he takes the opportunity to stop by and visit. On this occasion he was on his way back to the Netherlands.

This time he was driving his brand-new second-hand end-of-the-century Volkswagen Polo and, to cut costs, he went online to a hitchhiking website. Mercedeh was going from Norway to Germany, so it was fortunate for both of them to have met each other. While dining in Lund, we shared some music and customs from each other’s countries. Mercedeh could do the thing with the snapping fingers that only Iranian nationals can.

We’re way past 2001, but the tools that were pictured in the future bits in 1968 Kubrick’s classic still feel strangely different from the tools that we have now. A website is a tool. Its purpose is not to beat up other monkeys nor to travel in space, but to show to the world a little bit of who we are and what are we all about.

As an employed professional, I never felt the need to showcase my own work, as that was naturally being done by the company that I represented. And regarding my sketching activity, I was happy enough with sharing the sketches and stories in the collective blog Urban Sketchers Portugal. When moving to Sweden, I started publishing them in Urban Sketchers Skåne. And that was also working well enough too.

But it all changed while embracing the freelance way of life.

The very practical need to showcase my professional freelance portfolio arose. Something to wrap up a meeting with, to be on the way while leaving some thoughts on the coffee table.

The feeling also came that I should have my very own little chunk of the internet where I could share my sketched adventures. It’s been going on for years now, that I sketch and then show around the sketches to people around me. It’s a way of recording a journey, be it on a long travel to another continent or a night of hanging out in a local bar. If I sketch it, it feels like the story of a travel. And the people that are sketched become characters of this story.

This website has been on a long walk through the woods. Plans for it began several months ago, but the actual labor only started a few weeks ago. Some unforeseen obstacles and every other menial (or otherwise) task just seemed to push its birth further and further away.

So, without further ado, I bid you welcome you to my website and sketching blog. Feel free to browse through my work and have fun roaming around my sketched stories. I hope you like what you find and please comment on the work and the sketches. It’s good to have your feedback!

Your True Nature is a small business operating out of Malmö, Sweden, that helps people get in touch with their body, their mind and their soul. It is all about personal development and self-leadership with a spiritual touch. It is managed by life coach Towe Gustavsson who had a very active role and had immense care in the making of the brand.

The butterfly represents the transformation of oneself – the possibility that all of us have to transform ourselves and use our dreams to fly. It also calls to the butterfly effect, that small actions can become great changes within the self. Small dots on the edges of the butterfly’s wings hint the yin-yang dualism of life.

This baby boy had the stamina of a football player, the strength of a superhero, the skills of a pro DJ and the ubercoolness of an easy rider!

He is the second baby to be portrayed in this cooperation with the photographer Patrícia Canastreiro. Baby Dreamer is a project that mixes photography and digital illustration to bring fun memories to the whole family.